Crumbling centres of
(s)careDistrict administration has no plans to shift these decaying buildings so far
Amritsar, January 1
Major hospitals in city housed in unsafe buildings putting lives of the patients as well as the staff to great risk. These include TB Hospital, Municipality hospital, Dhab Khatika, and urban training health centre. Even Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital is housed in a building inaugurated in 1891. The Government Medical College has already decided to shift the hospital.

Walls of TB Hospital in Amritsar speak of the damage caused to the building over a period of time. Photo: Sameer Sehgal

No watch; cable operators cheat through ads
Amritsar, January 1
Violation of norms by cable TV operators through advertisements is going on unchecked for lack of monitoring by Amritsar District Cable Network Monitoring Committee, constituted for the purpose.

Two century-old trees axed; NGO lodges protest
Amritsar, January 1
After two old trees at the Government Medical College premises were axed today, the District Pollution Control Committee, an NGO registered its protest against the move.
The two trees, one of them was inside the newly-opened NRI Girls Hostel compound were axed today.

More than 100-year-old tree which was axed at Government Medical College in Amritsar on Sunday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

20-year-old woman ends life
Amritsar, January 1
Rajwinder Kaur (20), a nurse at a reputed private hospital here allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan late last evening.

Property dispute: Delhi-based trader abducted at gunpoint
Amritsar, January 1
Heavy presence of the police in city ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to the Golden temple was not enough to protect a trader from Delhi, who was allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint. The incident took place at inner circular road in Chatiwind gate area just a few metres away from C-division police station here late last evening.

Faithful
beginning: Thousands of devotees pay obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar in the wee hours on Sunday. photo: vishal kumar

Finding love at 60
Amritsar, January 1
Love is not bound by age and four years ago, Dharmendra and Nafisa Ali’s romance in Anurag Basu’s hit movie Life in a Metro showed us why. More recently, the concept was adopted in reality by an NGO Vina Mulya Amulya Seva from Ahmadabad when it organised a Live-in Mela for senior citizens, a meet where they could find their potential match.

Traffic norms take a backseat
Amritsar, January 1
Three years may have lapsed since the Supreme Court (SC) issued directives to all the states and Union Territories to implement the High-Security Registration Plates
(HSRP), but in the city even norms of the Motor Vehicles Act are not being followed so far.

In love with books
Amritsar, January 1
Don’t judge a book by its cover. And Amritsaris are the ones underlining the metaphoric here. Contrary to the popular belief and their limited resources in terms of availability of latest authors and books, the book lovers in Amritsar are reading the biggest names in the national and international market. If they love their food, they value their books as well and to prove that here’s a sneek peek into what the people of the holy city are reading.

Amritsar, January 1
Major hospitals in city housed in unsafe buildings putting lives of the patients as well as the staff to great risk. These include TB Hospital, Municipality hospital, Dhab Khatika, and urban training health centre. Even Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital is housed in a building inaugurated in 1891. The Government Medical College has already decided to shift the hospital.

However, there is no such plan for other hospitals.

With most of its rooms and wards being used to store junk, the TB hospital on Majitha Road seems to be the most under threat. The hospital was started in 1936. With time the once magnificent building has turned into a dilapidated structure.

Further the sewerage system of the hospital too has collapsed and needs urgent repairs. Foul smell emanating from the clogged sewerage pipes makes life more difficult for the visitors here. Most of the patients at the district Tuberculosis hospital prefer to sit outside their wards in hospital as they complain of stink inside because of the sewerage problem. With the outer walls of the hospital too in the need of repairs, it too has become a playing spot for the stray dogs.

The building of Municipality hospital at Dhab Khatika was inaugurated in 1917 and patients complain it is unsafe. The hospital was originally named Princess of Wales Jenana Hospital and was inaugurated by Lady Chemsford on April 16, 1917.

Even the urban training centre at Phawara Chowk near the Golden Temple is in a very bad shape. The hospital staff says they are forced to use only too rooms of the spacious building as the rest of it is considered dangerous.

Originally named Rai Bahadur Lala Rattan Chand Anti Tuberculosis clinic in 1942, the damage to the building becomes evident during winters, employees say. “During rains, the roofs of the rooms here leak, we can't even find a place to sit," said an employee.

Deputy Medical Superintendent, TB Hospital, Dr Nirmal C Kajal, said the hospital authorities have already asked the state government for its renovation.

Medical College principal Dr SS Shergill said Guru Teg Bahadur hospital will be shifted within a month, as soon as the new building is ready.

Amritsar, January 1
Violation of norms by cable TV operators through advertisements is going on unchecked for lack of monitoring by Amritsar District Cable Network Monitoring Committee, constituted for the purpose.

The committee has been constituted to enforce and implement Cable Television Network Regulation Act, 1995, has not held its meeting for the past over a year. The committee, constituted in 2009, held its last meeting on October 20, 2010.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting rules mention under (No. F - 1203/1/2007 - BC - II) dated February 19, 2008, that the committee will meet once in two months to look into the complaints brought to its notice by individuals/organisations or could take a suo moto notice of the violations of the provisions of Cable TV Network Rules.

Tarksheel Society, Punjab, members handed over memorandums to the state government and district administration on January 21, 2010, demanding implementation of the Cable Television Network Act 1994.

A member of the committee Sumeet Singh, also zonal head of Tarksheel Society, said despite reminders the meeting was not organised to evaluate the programme in general and advertisement in particular being telecast on the local channels. He said the live content had a great impact on individuals as well as families and led to the development of unscientific temperament. He said viewers with minimum education, impressionable mind of children and women were most vulnerable.

He said on the behalf of Tarksheel Society, he had shot off the last communication to the district administration on October 12, 2011, for not having held a meeting for the past one year. The Society members had complained to Deputy Commissioner-cum-chairman of the Committee against "illegal advertisements" on Cable TV channels popularising superstition and occult powers on October 29, 2010 and June 6, 2011. He rued that neither any action was taken against violators nor the meeting of the Committee was held.

As per the rules the committee must have District Magistrate as its chairman, a police official, District Public Relations Officer, Principal of a Women's College, representatives of leading NGOs working for children and women welfare and a member from academicians or psychologists or sociologist nominated by the district magistrate. The nominated members will have a term of two years and they will not be eligible for re-nomination. He said as per the norms all advertisement should be clearly distinguishable from the programme and should not in any manner interfere with the programme, the use of the lower part of the screen to carry captions, static or moving alongside the programme. He claimed that all these violations were blatantly continuing while the authorities were not taking any cognizance.

As per the rules in case the complaint concerns content carried locally by cable TV network at its own level, the committee may call for footage/VCD of the programme/advertisement against which the complaint is considered. If the committee is of the view that violation has taken place, its chairman may take action as per Section 11 of the Act after issuing a show-cause notice to the network and give them an opportunity to be heard.

Sections 11 and 12 of the Cable Act authorise chairman of the committee to seize and confiscate the equipment of the cable operator for the violation of Section 5 and 6 of the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.

n
Amritsar District Cable Network Monitoring Committee, constituted to enforce and implement Cable Television Network Regulation Act, 1995, has not held its meeting for the past over a year. The committee, constituted in 2009, held its last meeting on October 20, 2010.

n Tarksheel Society, Punjab, asks the district administration and the state government to implement the Cable Television Network Act 1994 by .

Amritsar, January 1
After two old trees at the Government Medical College premises were axed today, the District Pollution Control Committee, an NGO registered its protest against the move.

The two trees, one of them was inside the newly-opened NRI Girls Hostel compound were axed today.

President of District Pollution Control Committee, PS Bhatti, who highlighted the matter after he found out about the act said, “These trees were more than 100 years old. Such old trees are already extinct in the holy city. The college should have cared to preserve them.”

Workers who chopped the trees claimed they have been authorised by the officials concerned. “We cannot tell anything more,” a worker said.

Bhatti said he had tried to bring the matter into the notice of college Principal and office superintendent but they could not be reached as it was a holiday today. He said the authorities and workers had opted for a holiday on purpose to avoid public attention.

College Principal Dr SS Shergill could not be contacted for his comments despite repeated attempts.

Amritsar, January 1
Rajwinder Kaur (20), a nurse at a reputed private hospital here allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan late last evening.

However, the exact cause of the death could not be ascertained. The police has registered a complaint under Section 174 of CrPC.

Rajwinder belonged to Hoshiarpur and lived in a paying guest accomodation at Silver Estate locality on the Amritsar-Attari bypass road.

Sohan Singh, SHO Sadar police station, said the police has launched an investigation into the case. The incident came to light when her roommate came back in the evening and found her body hanging from the ceiling fan.

Sohan Singh said the deceased came back from the hospital at 3.30 pm while her roommate identified as Rajbir Kaur also worked in the same hospital came back to the room at 7.30 pm. He said seeing the body, her roommate also fainted and was rushed to the hospital for medical treatment.

“Nothing can be said at the moment. Father of the deceased is in the Army and is posted at Tripura,” he said.

Prem Pal, the investigating officer into the case said when Rajbir came, the doors of the room were bolted from inside. The security guard broke open the door and found her body. they took the body down before the police arrived.

Amritsar, January 1
Heavy presence of the police in city ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to the Golden temple was not enough to protect a trader from Delhi, who was allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint. The incident took place at inner circular road in Chatiwind gate area just a few metres away from C-division police station here late last evening. Even as police personnel from four states the city had the presence of cops from four states. The accused allegedly came in an SUV vehicle bearing the number CH-01-8055 and before anybody could understand they bundled the victim Taranjit Singh in the vehicle and sped away.

The C-division police has booked TS Pannu, his two sons, including Gursher Singh and several unidentified persons, all residents of Mohali and registered a case under Section 364 IPC in this connection.

Satinder Kaur, wife of the victim in her statement alleged that two days ago the armed accused had tried to grab their commercial property worth crores situated in the Chahtiwind gate area. The police reached when the accused were involved in hooliganism and a number of people had gathered at the spot.

“Instead of taking any action the police let the culprits off after a couple of hours of their arrest which encouraged them to kidnap my husband,” she alleged. She said she along with her husband was on going to see the property which the accused had tried to grab.

The police said there was some financial dispute between the two families which had resulted in the incident. “Taranjit had also been declared a proclaimed offender in a fraud case. A case has been registered against him at Kotwali police in this regard,” said Manjit Singh, SHO, C-division police station. Raids were being conducted to trace victim and arrest the accused, he added.

The attention of the authorities was focussed on the security of VIPs such as the PM, besides, CM Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal during their visit to the city.

Amritsar, January 1
Love is not bound by age and four years ago, Dharmendra and Nafisa Ali’s romance in Anurag Basu’s hit movie Life in a Metro showed us why. More recently, the concept was adopted in reality by an NGO Vina Mulya Amulya Seva from Ahmadabad when it organised a Live-in Mela for senior citizens, a meet where they could find their potential match. Quite close to bringing a social revolution by the thought, the NGO run by 62-year-old retired central government officer Natubhai Patel, again put forth the gradual change in mindsets and breaking social taboos.

The first of its kind exercise in the country happened on November 28 and had over 5000 entries from across the country. Men and women between the ages of 40 to 80 years of age came looking to find a suitable companion, going on dates and trying to meet their match. The traditionalists might condemn it, but the event was nothing sort of a celebration for those who participated. While one India is waking up to social change, the other India is still in shock, the holy city of Amritsar no less in expressing its disappointment.

“I don’t think it’s a positive sign. Why would somebody need a man or woman in their life at this stage/ you can find companion in a book, social cause or even a pet. There are hundred other ways to get busy with life after a certain age,” says Darshana Goraya, inmate of Milvartan, a privately run old age home on Majitha road. The 60 year old thinks personally, she doesn’t need any companion in her life. “I remained unmarried for life and was happy the way it turned out. Why would I feel the need of finding one now?” Similarly, Gursharan Singh, 73, and fellow inmate considers such acts as ‘frivolous ‘and only limited to a certain class of society, “Such shoshebaazi (showoff) is not healthy for our society. These are all western concepts and not applicable in our culture. One should act their age and spend time like it is done in India.’

While the closed cultural society of Amritsar, which reported the first ever same sex marriage of the country, finds the concept of live-ins alien even for their youngsters, the same in old age only raises eyebrows in surprise. “I don’t believe in this concept. Old age is about living in solace and there are better ways to do so. We have inmates, who would participate in social activities and other constructive things rather than thinking about love and romance. Also, at this age adjustments are an issue and with someone else in your life, things can go difficult. Even family acceptance is a problem and most of the time, people do not even get the meaning of a live-in relationship. It’s all unnecessary and not Indian,” says Inderjeet Kaur, president, Ppingalwada Charitable Society old age home.

But the fact that there were five entries from Punjab in the Live-in Mela does hint at something. “Old age brings with itself certain loneliness and there is nothing wrong in filling up that gap. We had a 65 year old sardarji from Punjab participating because his son, who lives in US asked us to find his father a good bride. Even their kids understood,” said Nathubhai Patel, founder, Vina Mulya Amulya Seva. Their NGO is planning to spread the concept to other cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bhopal and Chandigarh. And is Punjab in their loop? “Right now, we will take things slowly in Punjab as we are looking for sponsors. But after the overwhelming response, we are sure things will work out.”

Amritsar, January 1
The Amritsar East constituency has become a battle ground among ticket seekers in the SAD and BJP.

Even as the SAD has invited the ire of Youth Akali Dal (YAD) leader Gurpratap Singh Tikka, who has openly announced to contest elections as Independent against SAD representative Inderbir Bolaria from West constituency if ignored from East constituency, other YAD aspirants from here too have criticised the SAD leadership for "giving" the seat to the BJP under a seat-sharing basis.

Ironically, the tiff is there in the BJP camp too.

On one hand MP Navjot Singh Sidhu aspires to get the ticket for his wife Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu, on the other it's BJP leader Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina is leaving no stone unturned to claim the ticket from Amritsar East constituency.

Sidhu and Chhina have not been on good terms ever since Sidhu opposed Chhina as the Chairman of the Amritsar Improvement Trust in 2009 and got him replaced with Sanjiv Khanna, a person close to Sidhu.

Chhina is close to the BJP top brass and has a good rapport with Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Youth Akali Dal (YAD) president Bikram Singh Majithia.

But popularity of Sidhu too cannot be ignored outright, taking into account the fact that Chhina had lost the 2007 assembly elections to Congress' OP Soni from West constituency.

Except for Amritsar (South), all the constituencies are traditionally contested by the BJP candidates. It was the only the newly-formed East seat on which some SAD candidate could be projected.

Nevertheless, both SAD and BJP leaders are making every effort to justify their popularity in the East constituency. While BJP spokesperson Som Dev emphasised that the party has a stronghold in this part of the holy city, YAD leaders claimed that a majority of Sikh voters would prove to be a trump card for the SAD.

Clarifying that he is not supporting Tikka, District SAD urban president Upkar Singh Sandhu, who is also eyeing the ticket from East constituency, said this constituency has 80,000 Sikh voters out of 1.35 voters in total. Hence, he said, BJP chances to win from this seat is quite bleak. "We hope that soon the top SAD leadership would give a second thought to leave this seat for the BJP", he said.

Amritsar, January 1
Three years may have lapsed since the Supreme Court (SC) issued directives to all the states and Union Territories to implement the High-Security Registration Plates (HSRP), but in the city even norms of the Motor Vehicles Act are not being followed so far.

This, despite the fact that the new system will give an advantage to the city police against motor-cycle borne rogue youths who flee after snatching valuables and before their number plates can be read. Besides, a high number of vehicle thefts was another matter of concern. Also, fancy numbers take over these numbers.

It may be mentioned that the SC on Thursday directed all states and Union Territories to furnish an undertaking to implement the scheme within four weeks. Apparently, the Apex court was primarily moved by the security implications arising from the non-implementation of the scheme.

As per the rule 51 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989, specific guidelines have been given regarding height, thickness and space in between each letter. Each rear letter must be 35-mm high, 7-mm thick and there should be 5-mm distance between each letter.

Meanwhile, front letter must be 35 mm in height, 5-mm thick and there should be equal distance between each letter.

Amritsar Vikas Manch patron Dr Charanjit Singh Gumtala said the modern an efficient system will be highly beneficial in tracking violators of the law.

He said many cases of snatchings have been reported in his locality too like several other parts of the city.

He said snatching incidents have become order of the day in which even the tourists visiting the holy city are not spared.

He said it left a wrong impression about the city and its dwellers on their hearts. He urged the state government to expedite the work in this regard.

Besides, predilection of a large number of people especially youth are in installing fancy number plates, eye catchy one-liners and words. However, in the process, they end up tampering with the number plates. Such a trend provides an alternative to anti-social elements to escape from being noticed after committing a crime.

The registration number is hardly visible. The number thus cannot be viewed from a distance.

District Transport Officer Vimal Setia said of all the states in the country Punjab was way ahead as it recently floated a tender to engage a company for the task.

He said display of registration numbers in small font was punishable under the Motor Vehicles Act. He said as per the provision, the authorities could impose a fine ranging from Rs 100 to 1,000 against the violators. He said the department took punitive action against the violators and was vigilant against any infringement of the rules. He said the system will be of great use in keeping a tab on criminal activities.

What is HSRP?

The HSRP system, which was made mandatory in some parts of the country in 2008, will have a chromium-based hologram to prevent counterfeiting, an ingress letter ‘IND’ for a secure national identity, laser-etched seven-digit code to sequentially register individual vehicles, snap lock to make plates tamper-proof, and a chip-system to track the vehicle across the country.

Amritsar, January 1
Don’t judge a book by its cover. And Amritsaris are the ones underlining the metaphoric here. Contrary to the popular belief and their limited resources in terms of availability of latest authors and books, the book lovers in Amritsar are reading the biggest names in the national and international market. If they love their food, they value their books as well and to prove that here’s a sneek peek into what the people of the holy city are reading.

Quite updated with their literature, the city is well aware of the bestseller list. From 40 rules of love by Elif Shafak to The battle hymn of tiger mother by Amy Chua to the Litigators by John Grisham, classics to contemprory authors are a hit with city. “The Battle Hymn Of the Tiger Mother which gives us an insight into healthy parenting and has become a surprise international best seller is most popular among women. Another book popular with women is 40 rules of Love by Elif Shafak, the Turkish writer who brings alive Rumi’s poetry to modern day story. We have sold 50 copies in just two months,” informs Dalbir Kaur from One Up library. Some other international best sellers on the list are Help by Kathryn Stockett, John Grisham’s legal thriller The Litigators and Tuesday’s with Morrie.

“The general reading pattern in Amritsar is not defined. People are not experimental but know their books and authors. Though we run four months behind metros with the latest book launches but people do pick up bestsellers,” shares Dalbir. Women rather than men are much ahead in their love for books, the popular picks amongst them being Sylvia Brown and Nora Roberts romance fictions amongst others.

“Amongst the Indian Authors, Chetan Bhagat’s latest Revolution 2020, Ruskin Bond, Manu Joseph’s Serious Men and Indu Sundereshan’s Twentieth Wife are bestsellers,” says Rajesh Singh, working with Crossword. In the autobiography genre, Steve Jobs Autobiography and biography of Tina Fey top the list. Self help books by Robin Sharma, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch are amongst the most popular. Reaching higher levels of reading, the city readers are also picking up stuff while travelling. a